ICE agent faces federal charges for allegedly lying about Minneapolis shooting, filing shows
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who is accused of shooting a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis in January and then lying about the incident was charged with six federal counts of making materially false statements, according to a copy of the federal indictment unsealed Friday.
The charges mark the first federal case by the Trump administration against an ICE officer involved in its nationwide immigration surge enforcement operations.
The charges come just one week after Christian Castro, 52, was released from jail by authorities amid an extradition dispute over separate state-level charges leveled against him by officials in Minnesota.
The federal case stems from statements Castro allegedly made following shots he fired on Jan. 14 at the front door of a home in Minneapolis amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in the city, one of which hit the leg of Venezuelan immigrant Julio Sosa-Celis, according to the indictment.
Sosa-Celis was charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota following the shooting based on allegations leveled by Castro that Sosa-Celis and another individual in the residence attacked him, but the case was dropped after ICE said that video evidence surfaced showing Castro lied about the encounter.
The indictment accuses Castro of falsely claiming to the FBI that he only fired shots into the residence after being violently attacked by individuals using a broom and shovel to strike him. He is further accused of lying to the FBI after the shooting by claiming he fired one of the rounds while sitting after being attacked and claiming his scuffle with the man he was trying to apprehend prior to the shooting lasted "approximately three minutes," according to the indictment.
"This statement and representation was false because, as Castro then and there knew, the following facts were actually correct: The interaction described by Castro occurred over a period of approximately eleven seconds," the indictment stated.
Castro self-surrendered Thursday after being charged, according to sources familiar with the matter. He is expected to make his initial appearance before a federal judge in Texas on Friday.
An attorney for Castro could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
In May, Castro was separately charged by Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime, leading to a bitter fight between state officials in Minnesota and Texas, where the ICE agent was arrested.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, seeking to force Castro's extradition, but last week a federal judge ruled he had no authority to intervene in extradition disputes between the states.
Castro has not yet entered a plea to the state or federal charges.
Career prosecutor involved in probe fired: Sources
The federal investigation into Castro has also led to new fallout between career prosecutors in Minnesota and officials at the Justice Department's headquarters in Washington, D.C., sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
A career prosecutor who had previously helped lead the investigation was fired Thursday, sources told ABC News, after ProPublica published a letter they obtained in which he claimed he was being stymied by senior DOJ officials in bringing a more significant civil rights charge against Castro.
According to ProPublica, the assistant U.S. Attorney, Matthew Evans, said in the letter to Sosa-Celis' lawyer that the agent would likely only face lower-level false statements charges despite Evans' "strongest possible" objections.
According to ProPublica, Evans said he believed the office had sufficient evidence to charge Castro with a more significant civil rights offense known as "deprivation of rights under color of law," but claimed U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen and officials at Main Justice headquarters overruled him.
Sources familiar with the matter told ABC News on Thursday that Evans has since been fired from the department and disputed his characterization of the investigation, saying the civil rights probe into Castro is still ongoing, and a determination still hasn't been made whether he'll face additional charges.
ABC News was not immediately able to reach Evans for comment Thursday, and received an auto-reply from his office email stating he was now "on leave."
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
